The Damned (1947 film)

The Damned (Les Maudits) is a 1947 French war film and drama film directed by René Clément and starring Marcel Dalio, Henri Vidal, Florence Marly and Fosco Giachetti.. It was entered into the 1947 Cannes Film Festival. The film is notable for its depiction of the interior of a wartime submarine and for its tracking shots through the length of the U-boat. It was shot at the Victorine Studios in Nice and on location around Toulon and the Mediterranean coastline. The film's sets were designed by the art director Paul Betrand.

Plot
As Germany is in the throes of losing World War II, a number of wealthy Nazis and some French sympathizers head for South America in a German submarine leaving from Oslo. The film's narrator is a French doctor who has been kidnapped to tend a sick woman, the wife of one passenger and the lover of another, both aboard. The doctor realizes he will be murdered at any point once the woman has recovered so he tries various stratagems to escape. All fail.

The mission slowly disintegrates as the war ends and its purpose melts away, with some passengers either trying to escape or committing suicide. One fanatical Nazi tries to continue the voyage even after Berlin has fallen and orders have gone out for all U-boats to surrender at the nearest port. Part of the crew finally mutinies against the insane ones still fighting the war, some getting away in a lifeboat and the rest drowning. The doctor ends up alone on the submarine for days, writing an account of his adventure for posterity, until a US Navy ship rescues him and sinks his hated prison.

Cast

 * Marcel Dalio as Larga (as Dalio)
 * Henri Vidal as Docteur Guilbert
 * Florence Marly as Hilde Garosi
 * Fosco Giachetti as Garosi
 * Paul Bernard as Couturier
 * Jo Dest as Forster (as Jodest)
 * Michel Auclair as Willy Morus
 * Anne Campion as Ingrid Ericksen
 * Andreas von Halberstadt (as A. Von Halberstadt)
 * Lucien Hector as Ericksen
 * Jean Lozach (as Lozach)
 * Karl Münch (as Karl Munch)

Restoration
In 2013, the Cohen Film Collection released The Damned on Blu-ray and DVD in the US, using a restoration carried out by the French distributor, Gaumont.